The digital resume rolled out across my screen accompanied by a droning noise someone said was supposed to be color commentary about what I was seeing.
Instead of generating interest, it worked as an alternative to Ambien and I began to wish for another 198 ounces of coffee or a baseball bat to the head.
Had I done a better job of maintaining a poker face I would have fooled the people with me into thinking I was paying attention and not fighting to stay awake.
But I didn’t and I was fighting to find toothpicks for the eyelids.
Eventually, they asked me what was bothering me and I gave a blunter answer than I intended about being bored to death.
“Skills are nice but you have to do something with them otherwise they just look pretty.”
We bounced a few more comments back and forth and they asked me what made me an expert.
“I am not saying I am an expert but there was a time when people paid me to produce content and to provide a marketing plan. Those skills get rusty but they don’t disappear.”
It’s Not About Reusable Content
The conversation made me realize that a few things have changed in the decades since I graduated from college.
Talked with my own progeny about their college experience and pushed the importance of producing good content that demonstrates an understanding of the topic and application as needed.
“It is not about reusable content, it is about showing you know what you are talking about. Do that first and then you can look at how and if to reuse the material.”
The folks at the office got the same sort of advice/comment as the kids did. It isn’t and wasn’t me trying to B.S. anyone into this particular idea because it is bedrock to me.
If you want to tie it into blogging it fits in as the need to make sure you are not boring yourself with whatever you write.
Because if you are bored there is a pretty damn good chance the reader will be bored too.
Find the angle of interest and run with it. Can’t please everyone and don’t need to, but you have to capture some.
Some is enough.
Also in reference to blogging, there are moments where it is advantageous to reuse content. I have done it multiple times where.
Might do it again quite soon.
New readers come by and old ones who haven’t read certain posts might appreciate it.
There is a balance, not that I necessarily know where it is or use it, but I think about it…sometimes.
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Mitch Mitchell August 23, 2022 at 11:00 am
True, it’s never been about reusable content, but evergreen content. However, I have to add that sometimes evergreen content runs its course, especially on search engines (I’m calling you out Big G), in which case I feel no shame in repurposing those articles, updating them as necessary, and reissuing them as something. I figure I didn’t write those 3,000+ plus words only for them to be ignored over time.
Jack Steiner August 23, 2022 at 8:35 pm
No sir, if you put 3k words in there is a darn good chance it is something that you can run multiple times and hope that G doesn’t penalize you too badly for it.
Mitch Mitchell August 23, 2022 at 11:42 pm
Try this; type the name of a blog post you wrote in 2014 and put it in quotation marks. Then see if Google’s still listing it; unless you’re a big star, it’s probably nowhere to be seen. That’s what’s happening to the older posts on both of my longest blogs, even those that got lots of comments and visits.
Jack Steiner August 24, 2022 at 4:28 pm
Dammit, my stuff is MIA too.